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Anger at Cambridge pay reforms

Heavyweight opposition from the heads of three science departments has prompted
Cambridge University to rethink pay reforms that would offer better salaries
for senior dons at the expense of junior staff.

The heads of physics, chemistry and engineering have warned that long-serving
technicians and support staff already at the top of their salary grade could be
"demoralised" and "disadvantaged", which would damage teaching and research at
the elite university.

The Cambridge branch of the Association of University Teachers has also warned
that while the starting salary of research associates would be increased, their
longer term salary prospects would fall.

The AUT said that research associates could expect to earn £,116 after
seven years under the current system, but those appointed under the new system
would earn £1,483 less at the same stage in their careers.

The new arrangements - for implementation in 2006 - would give the university
greater flexibility in professorial pay, stretching the pay band between Pounds
44,935 and £92,000.

Andy Cliff, the university's pro vice-chancellor for personnel, said that
Cambridge was among the first universities to develop pay proposals under the
new national framework agreement on pay reform, following Southampton and
Nottingham through the same process.

The intention of the £4 million restructure was to reward staff "more
appropriately", allow the university to compete in national and international
labour markets and to create a system that would stand up to challenge on equal
pay grounds, he said.

But Professor Cliff pledged that concerns about the proposals would be taken
into account.

"We recognise that changes will be needed in the grades that will be covered by
support staff, potentially introducing one or two more grades in that area," he
said.

The current pay of non-academic staff who would otherwise lose out from the
changes would be protected for four years - after which time they would either
see their responsibilities increased, be able to move to a new post to match
the grade or accept a pay cut.

At a meeting of the university's 3,000-member Regent House earlier this month,
Richard Friend, chairman of the school of physical sciences, said that the
published proposals suggested "pay cuts" for up to 250 members of his school's
support staff, "whose contributions we value highly".

He said the reforms should be implemented only if there was "overwhelming
evidence that doing so would benefit the university's teaching and
research".

Jeremy Sanders, head of the chemistry department, said that most professors in
the experimental sciences "are helpless without the technical infrastructure
around them".

Keith Glover, head of the department of engineering, agreed. He commented:

"The department depends heavily on the commitment of its support staff."

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